Anustup Majumdar during his unbeaten hundred on Day 1 of the Ranji Trophy semifinal between Bengal and Karnataka at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. (Photo: Twitter/@BCCIdomestic)

Anustup Majumdar led Bengal’s revival on Day 1 of their Ranji Trophy semifinals against Karnataka with his ninth first-class ton. Bengal ended the day on 275/9 after being 67/6 at one point with Majumdar unbeaten on 120 and batting with number 11 Ishan Porel who is yet to get off the mark.

Saurashtra meanwhile were 217/5 with Arzan Nagwaswalla and Axar Patel’s wickets stopping the steady progress that was being made by the opposition’s top order. Sheldon Jackson and Chirag Jani however fought back with a 55-run stand for the sixth wicket. Jackson was unbeaten on 69 at the end of the day while Jani was on 16.

Nagwaswalla took three wickets while Axar took two. Meanwhile, for Karnataka, Abhimanyu Mithun was the top wicket-taker with three wickets. Prasidh Krishna, Ronit More and Krishnappa Gowtham all took two scalps each.

Bengal remained runless for the first two overs and in the third over, they gave in to pressure with Abhishek Raman edging to the wicketkeeper off Mithun. Bengal got their first run at the end of that over. Karnataka kept on the pressure throughout the session and took four more wickets to leave Bengal on 66/5 at Lunch. Bengal lost their sixth wicket in the very first over of the second session.

Majumdar then put up a 72-run stand with Shahbaz Ahmed and then a 103-run stand with Akash Deep to take Bengal out of choppy waters.